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Memorial pays tribute to victims of Mass. mine disaster

Victims of the Hoosac Tunnel shaft fire are not forgotten. The memorial to the workers is located on Old Shaft Road in Florida, Mass.

FLORIDA, Mass. -

Most of the miners were Irish immigrants with names like Conolley, Burnett, Fitzgerald, Cavanaugh and Whalan.

On Oct. 19, 1867, the miners — an unlucky 13 of them — were at work about 580 feet underground at the base of the Central Shaft, one of two vertical ventilation chutes leading from the surface to what would eventually become the Hoosac Tunnel, linking the town of Florida and North Adams and more importantly creating a railroad gateway from New England to the rest of the country.

At the surface, the structure built over the shaft suddenly burst into flames.

"The ashes completely closed the mouth of the shaft -- shutting the helpless miners from all chance of escape and sealing them up as in a bottle," the North Adams Transcript wrote at the time.

More than 100 firemen raced to the scene. But their efforts to rescue the miners below were futile.

The project cost scores of lives, but Oct. 19, 1867, was the deadliest day in the 27-year construction of the 4.75-mile long train tunnel — the longest in America until 1916. It took more than a year to recover the miners' bodies from the flooded shaft, said Stanley Brown, a member of the Florida Historical Commission.

Today, a new granite memorial on Central Shaft Road pays tribute to those 13 victims.

Last month, members of historical societies in Rowe, Florida and North Adams, along with rail enthusiasts, a folk band, town officials and a reverend unveiled the marker.

"The history of the Hoosac Tunnel never ends," Brown said. "We gather to pay respect to those who died 146 years ago this day."

The granite is engraved with the names of the 13 men who died, and sits within a semicircle of stones taken from the Central Shaft. Funds from the town of Florida's cemetery repair and expansion account paid for the stone.

"I'm really glad to honor these folks for what they did for us," said Glenn Burdick, a member of the Florida Cemetery Committee.

Construction of the entire tunnel, which was designed by A.F. Edwards, among others, began in 1855. The first train passed through in 1875. Its price tag ended up to be an estimated $21 million — or about $446 million today.

An early experiment in modern tunneling techniques, including blasting using nitroglycerine, the construction claimed many lives, though the exact figure isn't known. The most frequently cited estimate is 193 fatalities.

A memorial already exists in North Adams commemorating all those that died during the Hoosac Tunnel construction.

Charles Cahoon, of the North Adams Historical Commission, said he's identified by name more than 100 of the men who were killed during construction -- mostly by looking in old editions of The Transcript at the North Adams Public Library.

Soon he plans to dig into Florida's records to find more.

"We'd like to eventually honor all of them," Cahoon said.

Jerry Kelley, a Hoosac Tunnel historian, brought a scaled model of the central shaft to display at the dedication. He said he constructed the model using the original prints as a guide.

"Most people know me as the Hoosac Tunnel guy," Kelley said.

The ceremony also included folk songs about the tunnel sung by Patrick, Lindsey and Connie Gray.

Patrick Gray said he wrote his song "In the Tunnel" -- which the state has deemed the official Hoosac Tunnel theme song -- when he moved to Florida during the 1970s.

"From my house, I could hear all the sounds of the air rushing through the Central Shaft like voices beckoning me to write the song of the Hoosac Tunnel," Gray said.

At the dedication ceremony, the Rev. Roy Burdick of the Florida First Baptist Church spoke before reciting a

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